Pokemon Heroes

It's cool and mysterious :)

I'm a huge fan of Pokemon and have been since it's American debut 20 year's ago this year (it came out here 2 years after it did in Japan) and had the most impact on me then any other fad in that it's lasted so long. Even now when I'm approaching 30 years old I still watch the movies and follow the anime loosely and play the games. Pokemon is essentially the "90's kid" Star Wars in that it's craze has withstood the test of time even though it's popularity fluctuates the series never fades. Now on to the review of this film Pokemon Heroes: Latios and Latias. The movie takes place in a city that bares a striking resemblance to Venice Italy and has gondola boats and water races in which Ash is participating in being pulled by his happy feet style reptilian water Pokemon Totodile. Ash loses the race because a Pokemon named Latias takes a liking to Ash and steers him off course while being invisible. Long story short, Latias which is the red and white female and her brother Latios who is blue and white were orphaned after their father sacrificed himself to save the town from a tragedy and his soul became a protective and powerful jewel known as the Soul Dew that if it was used for evil purposes it would flood the city. These two evil Rocket members named Annie and Oakley (get the reference?) manage to steal this jewel and it depicts the first perma-death in the series as Latios like his father before him, dies to become the replacement Soul Dew. It's a really sad movie but it's better than other movies. The only bad thing is that even though you see Latios at the end before the actual credits it's only a symbolic fly by as we also see the father as well, though kids might interpret it as Latios is alive and they got their daddy back so I wouldn't mention that he isn't really still alive, especially if Latios is a favorite of your children... I wish I could mention more about the film, however Dove also did a review and they are known to be much stricter on their criteria as they are religiously biased but they found the movie to be ok for 12 and up. I would personally say 5 and up is ok because they will be too focused on Pikachu and other cute parts. EDIT: The reason I was drawn to Pokemon as a child and the reason I am still faithful to the fanbase even at nearly 30 isn't because of the violence and powerful creatures, it was the moral message and the bond that the characters have with each other. It had nothing to do with memorizing the characters (even though I have memorized them( or the flashy visuals and stuff. I was attracted to the DEEPER plot that the movies have. And if you think that the noises that the Pokemon make are nails on chalkboard I found them (and still find it) adorable. Especially since my now 6 month old baby makes similar sounds when she's cooing. If you want nails on chalkboard then try hearing Noivern's voice from Pokemon XYZ anime.